This invention relates to an apparatus for unloading bags containing bulk particulate materials and more particularly to such an apparatus having improved means for detachably securing the discharge spouts of such bags to a hopper of such apparatus, permitting the free flow of material from such bags into such hopper.
In several industries utilizing bulk particulate materials such as powders, granules, pellets and the like, such materials often are loaded in large bags for storage, transportation and other purposes. Typically, such bags include a main body portion in which the material is loaded, a set of straps on the upper end thereof from which the bag may be suspended, an inlet in the upper end thereof through which material may be loaded into the main body portion when the bag is suspended by its straps, and an elongated spout at the lower end thereof through which material may be discharged into a vessel, a material transport line, a processing apparatus or another form of receptacle.
In a typical use of such a container, the bag may be suspended from its straps on a support frame, the spout may be closed by a rope or other means and folded against the main body portion thereof, material may be fed into the inlet and then the inlet is closed. The bag containing the material thus loaded may then be transported to a storage area, usually by a forklift truck and placed on a pallet. When it is desired to transfer the material to another receptacle such as a vessel, transport the material to another location through the use of a conveying line or perhaps feed all or a portion of the material into a processing apparatus, the bag is transported to an unloading site and maneuvered into a suspended position with the spout thereof aligned above a hopper, the spout is unfolded and placed into the hopper and the closure device is removed to allow the material to gravity flow through the spout and the hopper into the selected receptacle.
In such an operation, it has been found that regardless of the care taken to position and maintain the discharge spout in the receiving hopper, a certain amount of spillage occurs resulting in a loss of material, and dust often escapes into the ambient atmosphere creating an environmental hazard. Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an unloading apparatus for such containers, and particularly an assembly for connecting the spouts of such bags to the hopper of such an apparatus, in which spillage of material being unloaded and the creation of dust is prevented.
The present invention provides an apparatus for unloading a bag of the type described, capable of preventing the spillage of material and the creation of dust during the unloading thereof, which generally consists of a support means, means for mounting the bag on such a support means, a hopper mounted on the support means, a first member having an opening through which the spout of the bag may be inserted when the bag is mounted on the support means, a second member having an opening communicating with an inlet of the hopper, about which a portion of the spout extending through the opening of the first member may be fitted, and means mounted on the support means for displacing the first and second members together when the spout is inserted through the opening of the first member and fitted about the second member to cause a portion of the spout to be interposed between such members in clamped relation.